20
Chapter
She was finally awake. Of course, there was still no clue about the severity of the trauma, but the important thing, now, was the fact that Bette came back. The blonde woman immediately ran out the room looking for a nurse, who quickly warned the doctor. The three of them headed to the room and doctor Bronson and Clair – the nurse – started the checks.
"Hello, Bette", the doctor said, approaching the brunette. "I know it may sounds a little odd right now, I am your doctor and you are in the hospital at this very moment. I need to know if you are in any pain, okay? Tina will help us" he said, to a still dizzy Bette. Her eyes still trying to focus.
At the name of her wife, she immediately turned her eyes searching for her. She still couldn't talk due to the tube in her mouth that was helping her to breathe. The blonde woman, who never left her side grabbed her hand and smiled.
"Hi baby, I am here, I am not going anywhere" she said, seeing the discomfort in Bette's eyes.
"Alright, ladies. First of all, we need to remove this tube. And you, Bette, you need to start breathing on your own, again, okay? Hold your breath when I pull it out, that way you won't feel any pain" the man suggested, "Squeeze Tina's hand if you understand what I'm saying"
The woman gently squeezed her hand. "She did it, she understood"
After the cue, they gently removed the breathing tube. As the doctor asked, Bette immediately inhaled and tried to regain her own breathing. It had been difficult at first, but she slowly managed to stabilize her breathe. Tina, seeing that, couldn't help but feel the urge to bend down and hug her tightly. She hated to see her baby hurting and facing any kind of difficulty. She looked like a child – a lost child.
"Good job, baby, I am so proud of you" she said, caressing her forearm.
"Alright, let's do some checks" the doctor said as he started the swinging-flashlight test. He started with her left eyes and slowly turned to the other one. Then went back to the left one. He did the same thing for several seconds and sighed.
"What?" Tina asked, concerned.
"Um, her left eye didn't response to the light. If you take a closer look. You may see that her pupil is more dilated than the other one. But I can't say what's the problem is, since she can't talk and I don't know the symptoms"
"So?" Tina added.
"Let's try making some assumptions" he said, "Bette, I am going to ask you a couple of questions. I need you to squeeze Tina's hand 'once' if it's yes, and 'twice' if it's no. Okay?"
One squeeze. "She said 'yes'"
"Alright," the doctor started his questions. "Do you feel any pain in your left eye?"
"She squeezes it once. She feels pain"
"Okay," he said, writing something down "Now, do you have any trouble with your sight?"
Another squeeze. "Yes... What does that mean?" Tina's voice couldn't hide her high concern.
"It may be some kind of optical nerve problem. It's pretty common after cerebral traumas. I can't say what the gravity is. We need to wait until she speaks again. That way we can be able to give an accurate answer to our questions"
After another couple of checks, the doctor said that Bette was finally safe. Despite that little hiccup about her left eye – that in the dr. opinion it wasn't anything to worry about – things seemed to go well. Doctor Bronson prescribed a couple of pain killers for her left arm and her head and, after writing down more other infos, he left the room. They were finally alone.
Bette was still awake. And Tina never left her hand. She kept caressing it and looking at her beautiful wife. Bette slowly move her head to look at her. She tried to say something, but no sound came out.
"Baby, easy, don't force yourself. You need some time to regain strength. Okay?"
Bette closed her eyes and swallowed. Letting out a slow sigh.
"I know sweetie, I know it's hideous. I bet you wanted to say that – mocking Bette's voice and mannerism – you hate being on this fucking bed, in this fucking hospital. Right?"
Listening to Tina, she couldn't help but show a really weak half-smile.
"Oh, it's so good to see you smile" she said, and then she could feel two squeezes.
"What baby? No, what?" then she understood, "That wasn't what you wanted to say?"
Bette gently squeezed her hand. "Let's guess what you wanted to say, then" Tina added, looking into Bette's eyes. And she could see it. She could understand what Bette wanted to say. Her eyes spoke. No words needed. The blonde woman smiled, "I love you too".
That immediately brought another smile on Bette's face. This time it was even brighter. She squeezed Tina's hand once then slowly closed her eyes. Letting out a sigh, she dozed off. But this time Tina was happy to see her sleep, knowing for sure that she was going to wake up.
After being sure Bette was soundly asleep, she exited the room and saw the gang approaching her. Angie holding Kit's hand, drinking a Slurpee. The view of her beautiful family melted her heart and smiled a smile that no one's ever seen in the last two weeks. Kit, looking at her, understood something happened. And it surely wasn't bad.
"Hey baby girl! What's up?"
Tears quickly formed in her eyes. Happy tears. "Guys, she's awake! My babe is awake"
"Oh my God, I knew it! I knew my baby sis was a fighter. Come here!" Kit happily hugged her.
"Porter did it! This is great!" Alice said, crying and smiling at the same time, "My friend is a fucking rock star!"
"So? What did the doctor say?" Shane asked, excited by the great news.
"He said she's doing really well, despite what she went through. She's just having some trouble with her left eye. But the doctor said it is a common thing, given the head trauma. But he couldn't say anything more since Bette can't still talk and describe the symptoms. She's very weak"
"What that matters, now, is the fact that she came back to us" Helena uttered, hugging Tina. "With yours and Angelica's help, she will go back to live her life again"
Tina smiled a very happy smile and wiped her eyes. "She's sleeping now, so I think we'd better stay out here and let her rest. Then I'll let her see Angie. I know she's looking forward to see her"
Bette slept the rest of the day and the whole night. She was still very weak and the doctor reassured Tina saying it was a good thing, it demonstrated she wasn't in any unbearable pain. The gang left later that evening, and Kit offered to take care of Angie since Tina wanted to spend the night there with Bette.
"T?" the next morning the blonde woman woke up hearing her wife calling her.
'T' – she missed that simple little word. "Baby? What's wrong?" Tina asked concerned.
"Hi" Bette whispered and smiled weakly.
"Oh baby, hi" Tina caressed her cheek, "It's so good to hear your voice. Are you okay, are you in any pain?"
"I feel dizzy", she was finally talking – slowly – but it was a good sign anyway. Her voice was still too weak and she sounded groggy "And I can't see properly with my left eye. It also hurts"
"The dizziness is surely because of the head trauma you had. As of the eye, the doctor said it's common among patients whom had brain injuries. Now that you're finally talking again and can tell him how you feel, he will be able to tell us what caused it and how to cure it"
Bette closed her eyes and whispered "Yeah".
"You rest, baby. I am calling the doctor and we'll see what to do, okay?"
"Huh-uh" she nodded and slowly dozed off.
After talking to Bette, the doctor diagnosed 'Anisocoria'. As he said, it was a common thing given her head trauma. It is a disease characterized by an unequal size of the pupils. Apparently the impact temporary damaged her optical nerve, but the doctor said it was a not serious case. It should heal in a couple of weeks. The blurriness in her sight was given by the pupil that didn't response to light. Doctor Bronson was pretty proud of his patient. Bette had been strong and she woke up with no dangerous damages. Plus, she was responding really well to the cures. Usually, patients whom just came out of a coma aren't able to go through a conversation and barely manage to stay awake. Bette, instead, was almost acting like she got a simple flu.
The cures done in the next five days yielded really good results. The brunette was finally able to talk smoothly and sit up on the bed, without asking any help from the others. Despite her bandaged head, and her left arm casted, she was fine. Tina talked with her about what happened and who was behind the accident. Bette, at first, was furious. But she quickly calmed herself when Tina told her Eric and his buddy were in jail and that they were going to pay. She also didn't want to think about that, since she wanted to enjoy her family, without any other concern. They would've dealt with the Eric thing indirectly. Leaving the whole work to their lawyer, gently offered by Helena.
Bette was sitting on the bed with her daughter. Angelica didn't leave her for one second. She was so happy to see her awake and it was the same for Bette. She couldn't believe that she had been this close to death and risked to leave them forever. She had been blessed and she didn't stop thanking God for that second chance. She found herself hugging tightly her baby.
"Mommy, you're choking me!" the baby giggled.
"I am sorry baby, I'm just so happy to hold you" she sighed a content sigh. Then she turned to her wife who was folding some clothes "Hey T, come here, I want a group hug"
The woman smiled and approached them. As the nurse entered the room, she found the cute family and couldn't help but let her heart melt at that view. "Oh, what a nice family we have here"
The three of them pulled out, "We are perfect, aren't we?" Bette said, showing her 1000 watt smile.